Rand Paul Introduces Bill To Repeal FATCA

Rand Paul is a Republican tax-fighting Senator from Kentucky. He seems to be somewhat of a maverick. He is one of the few members of Congress who has been listening, who gets it and who cares. (There I go again praising the virtues of a Republican. The world has definitely gone topsy-turvy!)

In a letter to Senate colleagues, he wrote:

“I intend to offer a bill to repeal certain provisions of the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, or FATCA (P.L. 111-147). The intent of this law was to prevent tax evasion by increasing access to overseas bank accounts held by U.S. citizens. However, any law enforcement benefits have been vastly outweighed by the deleterious effects of FATCA on economic growth and the financial privacy of Americans.

“FATCA requires the financial institutions of foreign countries to register directly with the IRS, and to provide financial information on the accounts of U.S. citizens—regardless of whether or not these U.S. citizens are suspected of tax evasion,” he added. “A failure to comply with these requirements subjects that foreign financial institution (FFI) to a 30% withholding of U.S.-derived revenues. This has had the practical effect of forcing FFIs to relinquish any association with American customers, and to avoid direct investment in the United States. It goes without saying that overseas investment in the U.S. is an important engine of our economic growth and prosperity. FATCA endangers an estimated $25 trillion in foreign capital currently invested in the U.S.

“Perhaps even more troubling, the implementation of FATCA has allowed the Treasury Department to make independent decisions with respect to the sovereignty of foreign nations and the privacy of United States citizens. In order to implement this law, Treasury has initiated intergovernmental agreements (IGAs), citing the intent to engage in reciprocal information sharing with other nations,” said Paul. “The Treasury Department, without the consent and authority of Congress, will force U.S. financial institutions to provide the bank account information of private customers to foreign nations. Such a requirement not only diminishes U.S. privacy protections, but also imposes billions of dollars in compliance costs here at home, which will be passed onto customers and the American public.

“My bill is drafted with the intention of removing only FATCA provisions that undermine Americans’ constitutional privacy protections and add burdensome regulations with a negative economic impact on the United States,” Paul’s letter continued. “Other provisions enacted at the same time, such as those pertaining to clarification of foreign trusts and treatment of dividends that do not have those negative impacts, have been left alone. The intent of this bill is not to disrupt legitimate tax enforcement, only to repeal counterproductive and constitutionally suspect mandates.”

The article says: Once FATCA was an American concern it became more vulnerable, even if the conventional wisdom is that that repeal will fail because Congress is too divided.

It continues with information about some who are and are not on side.

The concluding statement in the article says it all: He may succeed in repealing the legislation, or he may not, but Americans abroad finally see that someone is speaking on their behalf. What a shame that their government has failed to do so

@Outraged: Wouldn’t it be great if banks in Canada and around the world would come together and do what banks in two US states are doing?

Someone has sent me this article from Huffington Post cautioning us about seeing Rand Paul as our savior. That person has chosen not to post here, but I think it’s worth reading to see what kind of issues Rand Paul takes on.

Rand Paul claims by trying to promote better gun control, Obama is “helping anti-Ameican globalists plot against our Constitution” He also claims Obama used the families of the Sandy Hook victims as political props.

Again, I usually detest much of what Rand Paul stands for. As someone whose stepbrother was killed by another boy playing with his father’s gun over 50 years ago, I especially hate Rand Paul’s position on gun control.

Yet, Rand Paul seems to be the only one who is prepared to take a stand on what FATCA is doing to honest people trying to live honest lives.